Combining Direct Marketing with sales Promotions How many times have you received a direct-mail piece notifying you of a sales promotion or event or inviting you to participate in a contest or sweepstakes? Ski shops regu- larly mail announcements of special end-of-season sales. Airlines send out mailers or e-mails announcing promotional airfares. Nordstrom and other retail outlets call their existing customers to notify them of special sales promotions. Each of these is an example of a company using direct-marketing tools to inform customers of sales promotions(Exhibit 14-2). In turn, the sales promotion event may support the direct marketing effort. A study conducted by Vertis indicated that marketers could increase the effectiveness of their direct-mail campaigns by offering exclusive deals and/or coupons. Seventy-two percent of adults surveyed said they had responded to a direct-mail offering of a buy-one-get-one-free offer, and 63 percent said they had responded to an offer of a percentage discount on merchandise. Both of these num- bers had increased since a previous study conducted in 2005. Databases are often built from the names and addresses acquired from a promotion, and direct mail and/ or telemarketing calls follow.